Scale 500 aviation

[kami_illy]

As mentioned in a post in my Shorty Layout Topic, sometimes I change the topic of my (attempts of) modelling and switch over to aviation in scale 500. 

As for the planes themself, they are way too fiddly and small. So I buy them and don't change or modify them. At least not yet.

My plan so far is to build two dioramas. One will be a section of the terminal and tower of the now closed Berlin-Tegel Airport (TXL). I've built some paper mock-ups of some parts of the terminal and tower. 

 

 

The other airport is a part of the satellite terminal of the airport Madrid-Barajas (MAD). For this one I have only managed to produce some very crude mockups to figure out how to build the protruding structure and the roof covering which is will be a challenge for itself. 

 

 

I'll post as soon as there is new mock-ups, ideas, ... Progress might be as slow as the development of the N scale stuff, we'll see! 

Edited January 4 by kami_illy

[Pashina12]

This is something I've thought of often, too - to build something representing a bit of Vancouver International in the 80s, and Budapest in the 80s... but space, cost... and the planes I'd need particularly for Vancouver are hard to come by and pricey when I do see them. But maybe one day, just a small part of the terminal, like you're doing for Tegel.

[kami_illy]

17 hours ago, Pashina12 said:

This is something I've thought of often, too - to build something representing a bit of Vancouver International in the 80s, and Budapest in the 80s... but space, cost... and the planes I'd need particularly for Vancouver are hard to come by and pricey when I do see them. But maybe one day, just a small part of the terminal, like you're doing for Tegel.

 

Yeah, i know what you mean. I was looking for some pretty specific planes as well. For example, I was looking for a 737-200 of Peruvian in the 2017-ish livery. Maybe I'll just buy any 737-200 and repaint it at some point... Sometimes even the more modern and typical ones just don't exist (in this case I've been looking for a 787-9 of Japan Airlines in current livery, but only the -8 is availably in scale 500...) 

 

Since (at least for me) it takes some time to research and draw all the things you'll need for the buildings, tarmac / apron, ... you can already start with that and eventually you'll come across the right planes for the right price. Or you'll make your own 😉

[Oxbox]

I seem to remember a while back on one of the diecast model forums there was someone doing custom runs of decals for 1:500, I'm sure with the improvements in printing tech since then there are even more options. 

 

I'd love to retrieve my collection from storage and put some on display but it will be a while until that happens.

[kami_illy]

For some while now I had the idea to first build a smaller version of either airport as a test.

Now I got around to start with a smaller section of TXL! It involves "just" some gates of the terminal building and not the far more complex main hall, etc.. The small one also features the hexagonal base plate since that was the defining design element of the original design of the airport in the early 70's (its was even used to design the floor tiles, furniture, parking structures and so on...) 

 

 

Pretty satisfied so far with the progress. Also that gave me the chance to try the support structure of the base which I plan to incorporate in my Shorty layout as well. 

 

 

Next will be the terminal building... 

[cteno4]

That inter locking cross lap joint grid is an excellent support base. I love them! They go together so well and amazingly strong even when not glued. We used that for a grid system to support a large club display layout and it worked amazingly well and can be supported by a number of different things but stays flat and rigid and assembles/disassembles easily into a pretty small bundle of boards.

 

jeff

[kami_illy]

17 hours ago, cteno4 said:

That inter locking cross lap joint grid is an excellent support base. I love them! They go together so well and amazingly strong even when not glued. We used that for a grid system to support a large club display layout and it worked amazingly well and can be supported by a number of different things but stays flat and rigid and assembles/disassembles easily into a pretty small bundle of boards.

 

jeff

Also, it is really light while being stiff/strong. I used 1.5mm cardboard with normal density and the thing is light as a feather but super stiff. 

[kami_illy]

Meanwhile the construction of the terminal itself started. And even at that stage of construction there is quite some traffic already. Might be just to control the progress, given the recent history of airport building in Berlin 😅

 

[RS18U]

9 hours ago, kami_illy said:

Also, it is really light while being stiff/strong. I used 1.5mm cardboard with normal density and the thing is light as a feather but super stiff. 

I've been trying to think how to make a lightweight but strong base for my layout as I want it to be portable in 2 modules so this gives me some ideas.

[cteno4]

I started a new topic over here to discuss cross lap grids so as not to muck up Kami’s topic here

 

jeff

[kami_illy]

Somehow I find myself with some (little) time to spare in the nights, so the progress is unusually fast. 

I got to continue the terminal building. For this part I tried to implement the grid on the building as well. Worked pretty well but I realized that here you need to work even more precise to get the alignments in all 3 dimensions right... So for parts where I don't need to figure things out or that are repetitive I'll go to get them laser cut the next time. Saves a lot of time that I needed to turn around pieces, try them, trim the cuts, try again... 

 

Basic hull of the build is close to be done. The elevated parking / access concourse on the land side is there. Next steps will be to cover with the printed facades, then add protrusions, canopies and stuff.

 

 

[kami_illy]

I could complete the hull of the terminal and learns that the grid structure works well but (especially in that scale) needs A LOT of trimming bc every little thing will be visible. So for the big one I'll invest in Laser cutting the pieces. Now I know how to draw it, to work well in assembly. 

I also started to install the facades. Like I do with a lot of things (also in N scale) it's just a simple print out of the drawings I made. For the next time I'll just use thicker paper or paper with more filler in it, so it'll be less affected by the humidity of the adhesive. 

 

Hopefully in the next days, I can install the gallery and gates / bridges withe fingers as well as the canopy and entry facilities on the other side. 

 

 

PS. I was working on this late at night. So please forgive some of the sloppiness in the execution. Also in that scale the tolerances are seriously small before you'll be able to notice...